THE MARRIAGE OF KRISHNA AND RUKMINI

Carter Burden Collection
Sotheby's New York, March 27, 1991, lot 69

Krishna and Rukmini sit within a tented enclosure before a carefully laid out ritual fire - smoke emerging as twin curling puffs.  He holds a long-handled spoon as she sits demurely wrapped in a warm shawl.  Brahmins tend the flames and handmaidens emerge from an adjoining pavilion with ritual objects.  Musicians play outside.  They sit beneath a Mandapa marriage canopy of tied poles as a flock green parrots perch above.  The parrot is the vehicle of Kama the god of love - perhaps these are his messengers.  With blue outer borders with black and white ruled lines.

Another related painting of the subject is in the Salar Jung Museum Hyderabad.  Also see J. L. Davidson, Art of the Indian Subcontinent from Los Angeles Collections, Los Angeles, 1968, no. 143.